Currently, a source base station does not convey mobile station service option capabilities to a target base station during the handoff process. Rather than having the source base station convey this information, current standards require the source base station to be provisioned with the target base station service option capabilities. With this provisioned capability information, the source base station proposes a service option to the target base station to be configured in the mobile station during the handoff process. However, the target base station may not be able to support the source-proposed service option due to resource constraints or other transient prohibiting factors. As such, the standard allows the target base station to select an alternate service option to be configured in the mobile during the handoff process. This can be problematic. Because the mobile station's service option capabilities are not conveyed to the target base station, the target base station cannot reliably or optimally select an alternate service option to be configured in the mobile station during the handoff.
Thus, there is a need for a method of improving hard handoffs in CDMA systems.